


Second Coming of the Yellow Flash

by Flux_Uchiha



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Shiranui Genma, BAMF Tenten (Naruto), Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crow Counting Rhyme, Danzo goes messing everything up, Evil Shimura Danzou, Gen, Hiraishin, Hirashin!Tenten, Rude - Freeform, Shisui may be dead, Some guy mentioned Shisui and now I have another plot line I dont know what to do with, Tenten (Naruto)-centric, That needs to be more of a thing really, that doesn't stop him from messing with me, which
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29509695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flux_Uchiha/pseuds/Flux_Uchiha
Summary: Tenten decides she needs something else in her arsenal. Gai, unlike Kakashi, knows when he needs to find someone else, and introduces his old teammate, Genma. He had always wanted to learn Hiraishin after all, and that fit Tenten's needs perfectly.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji & Maito Gai | Might Guy & Rock Lee & Tenten, Hyuuga Neji & Rock Lee & Tenten, Maito Gai | Might Guy & Tenten, Shiranui Genma & Tenten
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is on FF.net as well, but I really wanted it here, so here it is. I'll be adding the ten chapters already up over there to here over the next couple days probably, so keep an eye out for that.

"Gai-sensei?" Tenten asked, pausing as her teammates left.

"Yes, my youthful student?" Gai asked loudly.

"In preparation for the next Chuunin exams, I'd like to branch out a little bit," Tenten said. "Sparring with Neji has made me come to realize that if someone has a defense that can block my weapons, I'm kind of screwed."

Gai nodded thoughtfully. "You have a point Tenten, I will talk to one of my old teammates, he may be able to assist you with that issue."

Tenten nodded gratefully. "Thank you Gai-sensei, see you tomorrow."

Gai grinned, doing his 'good guy pose complete with the sunset'. "Have a good day, my beautiful flower!"

Tenten just chuckled as she wearily walked away. She was glad she'd convinced Neji to undo his work and unblock her tenketsu, instead of having to meditate to open them herself, which was a pain when she just wanted to sleep.

Gai ran out of the training ground, checking the sun as he went. Plenty of time to challenge his most esteemed rival before going to meet up with his old teammates for dinner and drinks.

He challenged his eternal rival to Rock Paper Scissors, won twice, then ran off to the sushi place he had agreed to meet his old teammates.

Genma chuckled dryly as Gai ran in, basically crashing into the seat he and Ebisu had left for their third teammate. "Excited to see us?"

"Of course, my most youthful teammates!" Gai exclaimed.

Ebisu sighed. "Nice to see you too, Gai."

"So, your genin team treating you well?" Genma asked, flagging down one of the waitresses.

"Of course!" Gai exclaimed.

Genma blinked lazily. "I see they haven't done anything for your volume, they deaf yet?"

"My apologies!" Gai said, quite a bit quieter. "As we usually train outside, I have yet to deafen them!"

"Probably good," Ebisu said, adjusting his glasses. "Wouldn't want a bunch of deaf genin."

"What can I get you?" The waitress asked, stopping at their table.

They placed their orders, and she nodded to them, heading off.

"So, you forgot to tell us what your team is," Genma said, removing the senbon from his mouth and setting it on the table.

"Ah!" Gai said, grinning widely. "Of course! I got the Rookie of the Year, Top Kunoichi, and Deadlast combination!"

"How bad's the animosity?" Genma asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

Gai wilted slightly. "Pretty bad," he admitted. "I am trying, but Lee and Neji do not get along well."

Ebisu looked interested. "Neji Hyuuga? The supposed prodigy?"

Gai nodded. "He is… very prideful, unfortunately, I am not able to break him of that, and his home life does not seem the greatest."

"He's a branch member, isn't he?" Genma asked. "I'm not surprised. The Hyuuga clan is pretty strict."

Gai nodded somberly, then lit up as he moved on. "Rock Lee is my most youthful student! He has decided to take after me as a taijutsu master!"

Ebisu and Genma traded glances. "Does he wear the green spandex?" Genma asked, amusement clear on his face.

"He does!" Gai exclaimed very loudly.

"Volume," Ebisu said tiredly.

"Apologies!" Gai said, quieter this time.

"And your third student?" Genma prompted.

The waitress came by, dropping off their food. The three men nodded gratefully to her and began eating.

In between bites, Gai continued. "My third student is Tenten, she is aspiring to be a weapons master!"

Genma looked slightly impressed. "Really? Those are few and far between."

"She has expressed an interest in expanding somewhat, fearing defeat at the hands of an opponent she could not hit with weapons."

"And you're talking to us why?" Ebisu asked. "I am a special jounin specializing in training, but weapons are not a particular specialty of mine."

"And something tells me her aim is just fine," Genma said. "And I don't think poisons fit into what she needs."

Gai inclined his head, swallowing the sushi he had in his mouth. "She shows high aptitude for seals, specifically with space/time seals."

"You realize that I only know a group version of the Hiraishin, right? I can't do it by myself, only Minato-sama and Lord Second managed it."

"Perhaps you can figure it out together!" Gai exclaimed boisterously.

Genma chuckled. "Your faith in me is neverending. Alright, I might as well try. Perhaps I'll teach her a couple of other seals while I'm at it."

"Thank you, my most youthful teammate!" Gai shouted.

"Volume," Ebisu reminded tiredly.

"My most youthful students!" Gai exclaimed, Genma shunshining in next to him.

The three genin looked up from their stretching.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted, running over.

They started hugging, and yelling each other's names at the top of their lungs.

"Do they do this a lot?" Genma asked Tenten, edging away from the sight with a long-suffering expression.

"Yep," Tenten said tiredly, continuing to stretch.

"This is why we didn't indulge him as genin," Genma muttered. "To save our sanity."

"Too late," Neji said dryly. "For many people."

"Are you the teammate Gai-sensei mentioned?" Tenten asked, finishing up a stretch and straightening up.

Neji eyed her curiously.

"I am, how much do you know about seals?" Genma asked, figuring it couldn't hurt, and starting to stretch himself.

Tenten shrugged, bending over into a backbend. "I can draw storage seals, and know how to use explosive tags."

"More than most chuunin," Genma noted. "Show me after you guys finish your warm-ups?"

Tenten nodded, continuing to stretch out. "As soon as those two finish yelling at each other, we'll go on a run around Konoha."

Genma raised an eyebrow. "He hasn't changed, I see."

"He did that as a genin?" Neji asked, looking slightly incredulous.

Genma nodded, beginning to stretch out his legs. "Although it was less running around Konoha, and more running around the training ground."

"I wish it was just running around the training ground," Tenten muttered.

Neji didn't deign to say anything, but it was pretty clear he agreed with Tenten.

"COME MY MOST YOUTHFUL GENIN AND TEAMMATE!" Gai shouted across the clearing at them.

Tenten finished her stretching. "Huh, that was shorter than usual."

"They do that for even longer?" Genma asked, eyebrows going up.

"Yep. We're usually sitting around for a while after finishing stretches," Tenten said, beginning to jog after her teammates. "Coming?"

Genma removed the senbon from his mouth, tucking it into his kunai pouch. "Yep." He jogged after her, keeping a steady pace up.

"So, how long do you run?" Genma asked a little while later.

Tenten shrugged. "I'll be going for another 14 laps or so, about an hour. Lee and Gai-sensei won't be done for two hours at the least, longer if they're feeling particularly youthful. Neji'll give up around one and a half hours. Then we'll spar."

"So I've got you for about a half-hour?" Genma asked.

Tenten shrugged. "Give or take the few minutes that'll let me stand up again, yeah. Longer though because me sparring with Neji basically means me throwing weapons at him and him batting them away with his hands. Not too hard to keep up with."

Genma nodded. "So what's after your teammate and sensei come back?"

"A mission, or more sparring. Lee and Gai spar, I throw things at Neji. Or me and Neji both do kata or practice other things."

Genma nodded again. "A good schedule. Neji won't mind doing kata or practicing while we work on seals?"

Tenten shrugged. "Probably not. Or we might mortally offend him. It's about 50/50."

"Mortally offend him?" Genma asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

Tenten nodded, clearly holding in a smile. "Mortally offend him until he forgets about it the next day and goes back to talking to me cause I'm the only other sane person on this team."

Genma snorted. "Sounds like a Hyuuga."

"Well, now I've got a sane person to teach me!"

"Kid, no Jounin is sane."

"You're saner then Gai-sensei, so…"

"Most people are saner than Gai," Genma noted dryly. "He isn't exactly the best measuring stick for sanity."

"Good point," Tenten conceded, moving to the side as Gai and Lee shot past her.


	2. Chapter 2

"This is probably all review, but draw an explosive tag for me," Genma said, having given the very tired Tenten a few minutes to recover.

Tenten nodded, her breathing straightening out. She took the offered piece of paper and brush, and quickly drew a simple explosive tag.

"What makes it explosive."

Tenten pointed to the correct symbol.

"And keeps it from exploding at the slightest touch of chakra?"

Tenten pointed to another symbol. "Basic suppression, higher-level tags need higher level suppression though."

Genma nodded. "You know the symbols for a storage seal? Draw them. Separately."

Tenten wrote for a moment, handing him the paper when she was done.

"Good job," Genma said, smiling. "You even remembered the ones for stasis and food seals."

Tenten ducked her head slightly, smiling.

"Now, these ones here are time symbols—" he circled some of the symbols with a red pen he'd pulled from his hip pouch— "and these are the space ones. There's a third category to space/time seals, and that's dimensions. Those are the most dangerous to mess with, because they deal in other dimensions. The summoning jutsu makes heavy use of them, for example."

Tenten nodded, studying the red marks on the paper.

Genma pulled out another pen, this one green. "Minato-sama insisted we make space/time seals of our own before he taught us even the simplest layers of Hiraishin."

Tenten's eyes widened. "You-you'll teach me Hiraishin?"

Genma winked. "I've been wanting to figure out how to do it solo for a while, and Raido and Iwashi aren't interested. Always safer to do Fuuinjutsu with a partner or two. Minimizes crippling injury and death."

Tenten looked to be slightly in shock.

"Besides," Genma continued, "I think the Hiraishin covers most of your problems that deal with barriers and defenses."

Tenten nodded, still shell shocked. "That's awesome."

"Did you want to know what seal I made?" Genma asked.

Tenten nodded rapidly.

"It's a seal that stores poisons. More complicated than you think because a lot of poisons require moving air, fairly moist conditions, and darkness with dim light. I went through a lot of poisons testing that seal. It's helpful cause it means I can make poisons on the road and let them mature a bit."

"Cool," Tenten decided, grinning.

Genma grinned back. "Yeah. But first, chakra control exercises. Hiraishin requires so much chakra control, it took three of us to provide enough focus and chakra control to do it."

Tenten frowned. "I don't have enough chakra control for medical ninjutsu, nor am I a genjutsu type."

Genma nodded. "Perhaps not innately, but I'm not a genjutsu type, neither was I pegged for medical ninjutsu. Chakra control can be taught."

"With practice?" Tenten asked wryly.

"Yep," Genma agreed, sounding rather unenthusiastic about it, despite being the teacher. "I'm gonna have to do it too."

They sat there for a moment, Neji stumbling into the training ground and plopping down onto the ground near them.

"How about, when Neji recovers from his run, I'll watch you two spar, and then I can get a good approximation of your skill level, Tenten."

Tenten nodded, pulling out a scroll and starting to doodle on it.

The spar went about as expected, Tenten threw things at Neji, he deflected them with neat bursts of chakra from his hands. Genma watched silently, not even flinching when Gai and Lee ran in loudly half an hour after Neji had arrived.

Neji finally managed to bleed Tenten dry of her weapons, and got in close to disable her.

Tenten flopped back on the ground, mostly unable to feel her limbs. "I hate gentle fist."

"You say that a lot," Neji noted dryly, starting to pick up the weapons scattered around the field.

"Cause it's true," Tenten complained. "It freaking hurts, and is annoying for days afterwards. Get over here and unblock my tenketsu points, dang it."

Neji obligingly dropped the weapons he'd collected in a pile and unblocked her tenketsu. "Happy now?"

"Yes, thank you," Tenten said, laying there for a moment longer before getting up and starting to collect her weapons as well.

"Alright, you both did well, although Neji, I think you would benefit from sparring with Lee or your sensei a bit more. Only facing one person can stagnate you."

Neji looked like he was debating ignoring the advice, but ultimately nodded.

"Tenten, do you have any melee weapons?"

Tenten nodded. "A few, I can use them, but not extraordinarily well. I don't usually pull them out in spars. Against Neji they don't do anything."

"Try sparring against Lee every once and a while as well," Genma advised. "Melee weapons don't work too well if you've only practiced on posts."

Tenten hummed in agreement, finishing sealing up her weapons.

Lee, who had apparently overheard, and grinned exuberantly. "I accept both! I will endeavor to challenge both of you from now on!"

Tenten and Neji groaned in sync, plopping down on the ground.

At the end of training, Tenten elected to fling herself into the nearby river for a quick rinse before she bothered going anywhere. Neji looked close to doing the same but decided to pretend he wasn't her teammate and walked away.

Genma had to leave earlier, having a mission of his own to attend to while they did their D-ranks. Which was a series of sewer ones. Hence why Tenten tossed herself in a river before trying to go into town.

She needed groceries, so she headed for the market before going home. Basic groceries, then stuff for dinner.

Once home, she put them away, then went to shower and try and get the rest of the stink off. She'd wash this set of clothes later, so she sealed them away into a seal to remind herself, and to keep them from stinking up the apartment.

Halfway through the shower she heard the apartment door open, and as no traps were set off, it had to be Lee, who had taken to dropping by for dinner every so often. Which would have been annoying if he wasn't the one making said dinner each time.

Tenten finished up her shower, drying herself off and getting dressed in clothes she'd brought in. Not her usual mission wear, but a lighter t-shirt and leggings. Better for at home. And she only had so many pairs of the sturdy mission wear.

"Hey Lee," she said, coming into her main room, only to find Neji there, and the sounds coming from her kitchen noting that Lee was in there. "Oh, Neji, hello."

He nodded formally to her, which was an odd dichotomy with his somewhat lazy sprawl across her couch.

"Hello Tenten-chan!" Lee exclaimed, poking his head out of the kitchen.

"Need any help Lee?" She asked, somewhat unwilling to stay in a room alone with the standoffish Hyuuga. Lee was loud, but it was better than awkward silence.

"No thank you!" Lee decided, grinning. "I have it!"

Tenten nodded, then sat down on the other side of the couch from Neji. Which really wasn't all that far away, her couch wasn't very big.

Awkward silence reigned supreme until Lee finished in her kitchen, bringing out something that looked very delicious, but Tenten couldn't for the life of her remember the name of.

"Curry!" Lee announced cheerfully, setting the bowls on the table and plopping down between them.

Of course, it was curry. It usually was. It wasn't always quite recognizable as traditional curry though, with how Lee tended to cook. Nothing was ever the same twice. It made for interesting eating though.

"Thanks, Lee," Tenten said, smiling and picking up the bowl.

"Thank you," Neji said stiffly.

Lee beamed, eating his own food.

It was good, most of Lee's cooking was, and luckily, it seemed like Lee had learned his lesson about the spice. Namely that Tenten could not handle the amount he could, and he had to be careful when putting spicy things in his curry. She really hoped that he didn't forget and cause another incident, the first one had been bad enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before any idiot tries to say that Curry isn't japanese, I point you to the very canon Curry of Life that Lee loves. Also, you can pry Lee cooking from my cold dead hands. Fight me. Or don't. Possible slight timeskip next chapter, there isn't much to do in this time before the Chuunin exams.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! A little bit of a time skip, no more than a couple months.

"Gai, you don't mind it if Tenten is drafted to another mission?" Iruka asked, glancing up from a scroll. "I can find another unattached genin if you need three genin while she's gone."

"Tenten, you do not mind?" Gai boomed. Tenten shook her head, and Gai turned back to Iruka. "Two genin will be sufficient! We were going to do D-ranks this week anyway! Two genin is plenty for D-ranks!"

Iruka looked like he was in pain from the sheer volume of Gai, but he nodded anyway and managed a smile. "Thank you, Gai. Now, did you want a D-rank?"

"That would be wonderful!" Gai exclaimed.

Iruka glanced down at his list. "We have three weeding missions, two painting missions, and another Catch Tora."

Gai looked at his two male students to decide.

"We'll take the weeding missions," Neji decided.

Lee ran forward to fetch them, then raced out of the door, Gai close behind, and Neji following at a leisurely pace.

Tenten shifted awkwardly, suddenly the only person at the mission desk. "So, what's my mission?"

"Genma requested you for an easy C-rank to Uzushio. Your teammates are Genma Shirunai and Yuugao Uzuki. Meet them at the east gate tomorrow at noon, alright? Pack for about two weeks." Iruka smiled kindly at her, handing her the scroll with the mission details on it.

Tenten took the scroll with a short bow and hurried out. Should she pack then continue with the creating a space/time seal? Or go try and join her teammates and pack later.

She paused as she remembered that Neji had selected the three weeding missions. … Nevermind, she'd go pack now. She hated weeding missions, the boys always got very worked up and ended up doing basically all of it themselves. She did not appreciate it at all.

She returned to her apartment, pulled out her mission backpack, and started packing, clothes going into a storage seal before being placed in, rations and soldier pills into a second, smaller seal, and placed in the front pocket, then food and stuff into another scroll, camping supplies like her tent and bedroll went in next, and her many weapons scrolls went in last, filling up the remaining space.

Finally, she refilled her kunai pouches, and settled down for lunch, and to work on her project, a way to forcefully kawarimi someone with one of her weapons.

Maybe a two seal set up would work, one of the weapons she wanted the person to swap with, and the other on the person…

Tenten worked until the sun started setting, at which point she cooked dinner, and then went to bed. She had a mission in the morning, after all.

In the morning she cooked breakfast, finishing off the last of her perishables that would go bad during the two weeks she'd be away. She could seal them away, but that was too much trouble for now.

She showered and dressed, then walked out of the door. It was still kind of early, so she went to the weapons shop nearby, and browsed the weapons for a while, eventually getting an extra set of kunai and shuriken. Could never have enough kunai and shuriken.

As she really didn't have anything to do, but didn't want to be too tired, she just walked to the east gate to wait. She stopped at a book shop when a book on Fuuinjutsu in the display caught her eye. Might as well have reading material for the walk. Assuming they were walking, and not tree hopping, although Gai-sensei had suggested working out how to multitask, like reading a book while hopping through the trees.

She got the book she'd spotted, and another one on the Uzumaki clan, sitting down to read them near the east gate.

"Kushina-sama took something of a personal offense to that book. She'd rant about it for hours," Genma said, landing next to her without sound.

Tenten blinked at him, looking down at the book she was holding. The Uzumaki clan one. "Is it very incorrect?"

Genma nodded, sitting down beside her. "And not just outdated, Kushina would insist that she was pretty sure the person wrote the book based on rumors of Uzushio, and hadn't actually gone there."

Tenten stared at the book for a moment, then stuck it into her backpack. "Oh well, I was just curious."

"No problem with that," Genma said. "I can tell you what I know on the way, and Yuugao may be able to tell you more then me."

Tenten glanced up to spot the purple haired woman coming towards them. "Why?"

"Well, she was born there," Genma said, waving to the woman. "Here she comes now."

"Are you going to get up so we can leave?" She asked as she approached.

Genma shrugged lazily. "Maybe? We still have another ten minutes before we're supposed to leave."

Tenten snickered. This was one of the few times she'd actually seen this side of the special jounin. It mostly happened when he wanted to annoy someone. It was very clearly working this time, the woman glaring at him.

"Perhaps we should leave now, the sooner we go, the sooner we get back," Tenten suggested after a moment.

"Thank you," Yuugao said, sighing.

"Fine," Genma groaned, dragging himself up. Tenten rose to her feet far more smoothly, adjusting her backpack once she was on her feet.

"How far is it to Uzushio?" Tenten asked Genma as Yuugao signed them out.

"Two to three weeks at civilian pace. 2-3 days, give or take, for a shinobi," he replied easily. "We'll be maybe 4 days? Probably depends on your stamina and speed."

"It's not as good as Lee or Neji's," Tenten admitted. "But I'm working on it."

"Your teammates are a tiny green monster child of Gai's, and a Hyuuga, who's been training basically since he could walk. Don't try and compare yourself. It gets you nowhere." Genma patted her shoulder as Yuugao came back.

"We're good to go. Let's get moving," she said, leading them out of the gate.

They leaped up into the trees, moving quickly, although not as quickly as the speed drills Gai had them do occasionally.

"So, I suppose an easy way to tell you about Uzushio would be proving the book wrong. So, first thing the book says about Uzushio?" Genma ran beside her, sending an amused glance at her backpack, where the book was currently sitting.

Tenten thought to what little of the book she had read. "Uhm, Uzushio is made up of the Uzumaki clan only."

"False," Yuugao called back.

"Yeah," Genma agreed, scoffing quietly. "There were two clans on Uzushio, the Uzumaki, and the smaller Uzuki clan. Yuugao's parents, and by extension her, are from the Uzuki clan."

"What's the Uzuki clan do?" Tenten asked, curious.

"They use musical genjutsu. When we get back, I'll dig up an old bingo book that belonged to my mom back before Uzushio fell. There'll probably be at least one Uzuki in there."

"How does it work?" Tenten wondered, trying to apply her current, admittedly limited, knowledge of genjutsu to an instrument.

"You'd be better off asking Yuugao," Genma admitted. "I'm not quite sure how it works, but I think she knows at least the basics. Maybe when we stop for the night you can ask. What's the next thing?"

"The Uzumaki only specialized in space/time seals. I did think that a bit odd." Tenten frowned slightly.

"Also incorrect," Genma said, laughing quietly. "The Uzumaki were split into five branches, each specializing in a different kind of seal. Kushina-sama was from the branch that actually did space/time seals."

"Oh cool," Tenten settled on, breathing slightly heavier.

"You still good to run for another few hours?" Genma asked.

Tenten nodded, choosing not to waste her breath.

"Well, tell me if you need to slow down or rest," Genma said. "You're a genin, haven't even been one for a year, and are not expected to keep up with two highly trained jounin. No one would expect you to."

Tenten nodded again, stubbornly continuing on and keeping up with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foreshadowing for later issues! Genma's a good sensei though!


	4. Chapter 4

They stopped at a seemingly random point in the woods a few miles from Uzushio.

"Why did we stop here?" Tenten asked, panting slightly. "Is there a barrier or something?"

"Something like that," Yuugao said, resting her hand on what looked like air. "There's a scrolling effect here, no one's quite sure when or who put it up, but it was."

"Makes it so people walk right past Uzushio," Genma explained at Tenten's confused look. "Brings the two edges of the seal's range together. Walk in one side and out the other."

"We have to get updated marks from the seal, although it only works if you're of Uzushio descent." Yuugao explained, flicking her wrist. "We think it automatically allows full Uzushio blooded people in, but we have no way to prove it."

"Why not?" Tenten asked.

"I was Konoha born and raised," Yuugao explained. "I am technically full Uzushio blooded, but I wasn't raised like one. My parents figured it would be better if I was raised like a Konoha kid."

Genma flicked his wrist in the air in front of him too. "Could have gone either way." He shrugged. "Tenten, stand here, and flick your wrist like you saw us do."

Tenten eyed the seemingly empty air, but stood where Genma had gestured and flicked her wrist in the air. It felt oddly thick, and like she had collected some on her hand, rather like the cotton candy sticking to the stick. She shook her hand, seeing if the feeling would go away. It didn't. She rubbed at it, wrinkling her nose when she didn't feel anything there.

"Weird the first time, isn't it," Genma laughed.

She shook her hand again. "Yeah. Why are we here again?"

"Right," Genma said as they started walking. "The entire thing here is that while we're pretty sure only a few people can get in, we still go to check routinely for people. We haven't found anyone yet, but it's good to check anyway."

"Plus we're keeping an eye out for any of Uzushio's scrolls that may have survived," Yuugao said, eyeing the sky. "We, again, haven't found anything, but that in no way means there isn't anything."

"We're pretty sure most things got taken by those who destroyed Uzushio, but we aren't sure. As with most things about the fall of Uzushio, we just don't know. We don't know if all of their libraries were hidden away for safekeeping, or everything was taken, or even if it was all purposely destroyed by the Uzumaki to ensure no one got the knowledge."

"Although we're fairly sure about the final one not being the right one," Yuugao cut in. "It isn't the Uzumaki's style."

Genma nodded his agreement.

Tenten considered it. With all she'd been told over the past few days, it seemed about in line with what she knew for the Uzumaki to hide the information.

"We'll have to water walk a good section of the way, you were taught that, right?" Yuugao asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tenten nodded quickly. Gai had taught them a couple of weeks after he got them. Right after they learned tree walking.

"Uzushio is an island," Genma explained, gesturing to the water, which was slowly appearing through the trees. "Any bridges were destroyed when it fell, so water walking it is."

"Aren't there whirlpools surrounding Uzushio?" Tenten asked cautiously.

"There were," Yuugao said, staring out at the jewel-like blue surface of the ocean, Uzushio barely visible as a red smear on the horizon. "Once. They've faded away over time."

Tenten caught the bare undertones of sadness. She could understand, Uzushio must have been beautiful in it's time, and from what she understood, a place where seals were everywhere, and the inhabitants were all long silken red hair and jewel eyes. She wished she could have seen it in its prime. It must have been gorgeous.

"Let's go," Genma said, stepping out on the water. "It's a four hour run to Uzushio at the speed we've been traveling for most of the trip, so let's get started."

"It'll be nearing dark when we arrive," Tenten noted, eyeing the sun.

"We'll set up camp and check things in the morning," Genma agreed. "Maybe we'll find scrolls this time."

"Unlikely," Yuugao said. "But I suppose a bit of hope is not out of the question."

Tenten stepped out onto the water as well, channeling chakra to her feet in order to step on top of it, instead of into it. She didn't need wet shoes. They weren't any fun.

Four hours later, and the sun was dipping below the horizon, bathing Uzushio in red light.

"It's been stained this red color since the fall," Yuugao said, bending over to pick up a handful of sand, letting it run through her fingers. "Mother says it's because the blood of Uzushio's inhabitants is staining it, keeping a reminder of Uzushio's children with it."

"So it'll stay red long after Uzushio's cleared and taken over by wildlife?" Tenten asked curiously, shifting sand through her fingers too. It was indeed colored a deep blood red.

"Probably," Yuugao agreed, shrugging. "Genma stop poking the poisonous plants."

Genma looked up guiltily from where he was crouched next to a plant, poking it with the end of a senbon.

Tenten snickered.

The next morning the sand was indeed still red, as was most of the rest of the island. With the exception of the plants and animals, the entire place was bloody red, as if it had been painted that color.

Tenten was reminded of blood, and resolutely stared at plants any time she could, trying to burn the green into her eyeballs instead of the red.

"It's kind of depressing, isn't it," Genma said, standing next to her. "Come on, we can sweep the island, do a slightly closer check, then leave. Shouldn't be too long."

Tenten tore her eyes away from the plant to look at him. "Alright. How are we doing this?"

"You take the west, Yuugao'll take the east, and I have the middle," he replied, shrugging. "Not too complicated. When we meet up at the other side of the island we'll make sure no one found anything, then do a slightly more thorough sweep on our way back."

Tenten nodded her understanding, sending one last glance at the plant she'd been resolutely staring at for the last ten minutes.

She hadn't really found anything on her side, which she supposed was a good thing. She'd spotted deer, rabbits, even a curious frog that jumped away when she got near it, but no humans. She spotted a butterfly, and after doing a sweep of the area she was in, went to get a better look. She knew Lee would want to know all about everything she found, and she might as well have some descriptions of pretty animals to bring back to him.

She got a good look at the wings of the butterfly, red and sea green splotched across in seemingly random patterns. She didn't recognize it, and wondered if she'd be able to find it in the Konoha libraries. She'd check when she got back, and maybe rope Lee into helping. He'd certainly be enthusiastic about it.

The butterfly moved, fluttering right towards her, and startling Tenten. She fell backwards, brushing against a half fallen building. Something flashed in the corner of her vision, and she looked over, finding a staircase leading downward where she'd just leaned against. She stared at the butterfly for a moment longer before hurrying onward. She'd have to hope it was still there when she got back. She had to tell Genma and Yuugao she'd found something before she actually went down there or anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp* Common sense!? In this universe? Wow! Jokes aside, have a nice existence!


	5. Chapter 5

Tenten had to wait for a while before Genma and Yuugao appeared, and she spent that time mostly brushing against random walls in the vague hope it'd do the same thing the other one had earlier.

"Tenten, you're done early?" Genma said, raising an eyebrow.

"I found something," Tenten explained. "Not a person, something else."

Up went the other eyebrow, and Tenten gestured back to where she'd found the staircase. "It was a staircase to somewhere. I came to get you instead of exploring it."

"Good thinking," Yuugao praised. "Good to see someone has common sense."

"Our village isn't known for its common sense," Genma agreed.

"Shinobi in general aren't known for their common sense," Tenten pointed out.

"She has a point," Genma told Yuugao, before turning back to her. "Alright, where's this staircase?"

"Back this way," Tenten said quickly, leading them back to it.

Luckily it was still open, and Tenten let Yuugao head down first, sword at the ready. She followed, and Genma took the rear.

It was a library. The thing at the bottom of the steps was a massive library.

Tenten stared at it in amazement, awed by the sheer amount of scrolls and books occupying every shelf. "Is this where all of the Uzushio knowledge has been stored this whole time?"

Genma hummed thoughtfully. "I don't believe this is all of it, Uzushio wouldn't have put all of its metaphorical eggs in one basket."

Tenten looked at him somewhat incredulously. "This, is only part of their collective knowledge?"

"There could be up to five more libraries like this," Yuugao noted. "Possibly up to seven more. Maybe eight."

"What is even in all of those?" Tenten asked, carefully advancing on one of the shelves.

Yuugao scanned the shelves. "I think this is the Hogo Uzu section. The other libraries like this will probably each be for one branch, then one for the Uzuki. There's a good possibility there's another Hogo Uzu one specifically for barrier seals, or a second Difenda no Shio for their weapons division."

"There was a weapons division?" Tenten asked curiously, looking up from where she had crouched down to look at the bottom shelves.

"Yeah, they were pretty fearsome too," Genma agreed. He picked one of the scrolls, tugging on it. "They must have some sort of seal in place to keep people from taking the scrolls."

"In addition to the ones keeping each individual scroll closed probably," Yuugao sighed. "Most of this would be unusable to anyone under Lord Fourth's level anyway."

"And most of that was because he was married to…" Genma trailed off, glancing at her. "Nevermind. Not supposed to say anything about that, my bad."

Tenten raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on the slip. She tugged on one of the books, titled something about the theory of ghosts. It didn't come out, so she flicked a bit of chakra at it, and it practically flew at her face. She ducked quickly, staring after it. "Uhh, whoops?"

Yuugao snorted. "Whoops indeed. What book is it?"

Tenten picked it up. "Uh, Theory of Seeing Ghosts and Phantoms."

"Nice pick," Genma said, looking like he was trying to read it upside down. "How'd you get it out?"

"I flicked chakra at it," Tenten admitted. "Then it tried to attack me."

Genma patted her on the head, then headed for the scroll he'd been tugging on.

Yuugao yelped, and something hit the ground. "You're kidding me. I wasn't even pulling on it."

Tenten ran over to pick that book up too. "Why do they have an entire book on dimensional exploits."

"That's just volume one," Yuugao noted, tapping the book next to it. "There's five more."

"There's five more?" Tenten asked incredulously.

"There might be more than that buried somewhere in this labyrinth of a place," Genma agreed, glancing around. "We do not have time to categorize and collect every single book in here."

"And most of it isn't useful to Konoha anyway," Yuugao agreed.

Tenten tugged on another book, catching it when it flew at her face. She glanced at the title. "This one is hair seals?" Tenten blinked at it, confused.

"Oh that one might actually be useful, the ones in there shouldn't be too complicated," Genma said, tugging on one as well.

Tenten opened it curiously, finding the instructions for a hair color changing seal on the first page. A note underneath it read 'only good for pranks if victim doesn't know counter seal.' Which made sense.

Four hours later, and they were back on the road, each with a scroll containing several books and scrolls from Uzushio. They hadn't managed to get the entire library, or even just a fifth of it, just grabbing any books or scrolls that looked interesting in the time they had before they had to finish checking the island and start getting back.

"Stop right there!" A four person team of missing nin from what looked like Kiri, based on the striped leggings, jumped down and did a very good either intimidation, or sheer ridiculousness attempt. Unfortunately, Tenten was on a team with Lee and Neji, and as such, neither worked.

A glance at Genma told her he was unimpressed, and Yuugao was very done with the situation. Both of which were very understandable at the moment.

"What do you want," Genma asked lazily, moving his senbon through his teeth.

The apparent leader stepped forward. "We want those scrolls you're carrying! We know it has Uzushio knowledge in it!"

Tenten tried to work out why they wanted Uzushio's knowledge, then how they knew they had been at Uzushio and had gotten stuff from the island, then how they were planning on using the seals that were far beyond anyone but Konoha's comprehension. None of them were solved in the few minutes she had before Genma was apparently done with their idiocy, and just spat a senbon at them.

The Kiri nin in front got impaled through the shoulder, just barely missing the heart, although landing straight through where Tenten was fairly sure was a pressure point or tenketsu, given the way his arm went completely limp.

The Kiri nin squawked in either indignation or pain, Tenten wasn't sure. They rushed forward, the leader and a second one going for Genma, the other two rushing the girls.

Yuugao stepped in front of Tenten, raising her sword.

Tenten grabbed one of her weapons scrolls, fully prepared to launch a barrage of weapons should there be an opening.

An opening was given not a moment later as Yuugao leapt into the air and landed in a nearby tree.

Tenten pulled open the scroll, sending a spread of weapons at the Kiri nin attempting to attack her.

They attempted to dodge, but Yuugao stopping them from one side, Genma fighting off the two on the other, and Tenten's weapons cutting off any escape route.

Tenten cheered inwardly when the Kiri nin fell over, pinned to the ground, one bleeding out, the other unconscious from a hard whack to the skull from one of the two maces Tenten had thrown at them.

Genma finished his two off as well, and pulled out a bingo book to check. "Nope, they aren't in the bingo book, so I'll take care of the bodies while you two go on ahead."

Yuugao nodded, handing Tenten the remainder of her weapons to be sealed up. "Come Tenten, we'll head on ahead and Genma will catch up."

Tenten glanced at Genma, but nodded, hurrying behind Yuugao as she strode away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just like Tenten so much. The common sense she displays is a balm upon my second-hand embarrassment burns.


	6. Chapter 6

Tenten had fun on the mission, but she was glad to be back with her team. As much as she wouldn't admit it to Lee or Gai, she'd missed them. As much as she hated waking up to their yelling, it was an interesting way to start the day.

"Did you guys do a lot of missions?" Tenten asked Neji as they ran alongside each other for a little while.

"Only D's," Neji admitted sullenly. "But I guess we were going to do it anyway."

"Maybe we can get a C now that I'm back," Tenten mused.

Neji just scoffed, running ahead. Tenten rolled her eyes at his back and continued running onward. He'd get over it. Just because she was requested for one mission, didn't mean it wouldn't happen to him eventually.

"Would you three like a C-rank?" Gai asked once he and Lee finished their laps, getting back to Tenten and Neji going at it for the third time that morning. "Tenten, I know you just got back, but I feel this could be a good test of your springtime of youth!"

Tenten giggled. "Sure sensei."

Neji gave a short sharp nod.

Lee cheered, jumping up into the air. "YOSH! Let us test our springtime of youths and get a C-rank!"

Gai patted him on the head obligingly, and led them towards the mission office.

"Back so soon?" Iruka asked as they entered.

"Yep," Tenten admitted, rubbing the back of her head somewhat sheepishly.

"Iruka! Might you have any C-ranks!?" Gai was loud as always.

Iruka only looked amused. "Yes, we got a few new ones just recently. You're the first ones to arrive and have first pick."

Gai beamed, approaching to check out the options. Tenten stayed in her spot as the two boys half hid behind Gai while still leaning out to check the scrolls out. She snickered at them quietly.

"This one looks good! We could use practice with long escort missions!" Gai held the scroll he'd chosen up in the air. Tenten barely caught the words 'Escort' and 'Iron' on it before it disappeared into one of Gai's many pockets. Ah, it was an escort to the land of Iron. Konoha got some of their weapons from there, and a good section of their ore. She'd probably enjoy this mission more than the boys would.

They were escorting a trader's caravan, which strangely didn't have many people. There were four wagons, and two people. The trader himself, and who she assumed was a craftsman. Er, woman?

"It'll be a good exercise in handling animals," the trader said, looking as innocent as a civvie was capable of doing while trying to hide a smirk. "Try and be less excitable, animals will spook if you startle them too badly. And if one spooks, they all will."

Tenten giggled at Neji's standoffish face that meant he didn't know what to do with the situation and didn't like it. "The trader will probably lead the first wagon, and the others will mostly just follow without much prompting. But we'll probably each be stationed next to the animals while the other person directs the back wagon."

She approached the horse, making sure it could see her. "Hey…" she dipped into a brief bow to check the horse. Ah the advantages of growing up with a father that sent off shipments every so often. She knew how to do this. "Boy, you're a boy."

Neji gave her the strangest look, but Lee just bounded up to the horse.

"Pleased to meet you, horse-san!" He bowed to the horse, and Tenten snickered as the horse tried to shy away from him.

"A bit less enthusiastic," Tenten advised. "They'll appreciate it more."

"Of course!" Lee said, albeit slightly quieter. He bowed to the other horse more slowly. "Pleased to meet you as well other horse-san!"

"Those two are Smokey and Starlight," The trader said, patting their noses. "If you can't tell which is which, I'm concerned about your academy."

Smokey was probably the dark grey one with black legs. Which meant Starlight was the blue roan with a white speckled coat.

"The ones for the front are Flora and Fauna, Flora has the one white sock, and the ones behind this wagon are Voltage and Opal. Opal's the white one, and Voltage got struck by lightning as a foal."

Tenten paused. "He what now?"

"Got struck by lightning," the trader agreed.

"And how did he survive?" Tenten asked cautiously.

"The springtime of youth!" Lee declared, speed walking over to the horse.

"No one's quite sure," the trader admitted. "He gets spasms sometimes, so we pair him with Opal, who's a very strong horse. She can pull the wagon by herself for a while if needed while Voltage recovers."

Tenten leaned around the wagon. "That horse is taller than Gai-sensei. What kind of horse is that."

Neji leaned around the other way to check, and looked almost traumatized when he straightened.

"A draft horse," the trader replied easily. "Big, isn't she?"

"She's taller than Gai-sensei," Tenten whispered. Gai was tall, one of the taller shinobi in the village, and the draft horse was a lot taller than him.

"We're pretty sure she's full grown," the man remarked. "We're not entirely sure though. Well, I'm kind of glad there's two more of you than usual, even if it's usually two jounin."

"Do the jounin doing this vary?" Tenten asked curiously, following him as he moved to the front of the train. She could still hear Lee enthusiastically greeting each of the horses.

"They have in the last seven years or so," the man agreed. "Before that it was this one kid with different partners each time. Cute black haired kid named Shisui Uchiha." **(I said he'd be mentioned/appear in every fic didn't I? Him being dead here ain't gonna stop me! Lol)**

Tenten tilted her head. "An Uchiha?" She'd only been nine when they died, and as such didn't really know much about the clan. Aside from their famous dojutsu of course. But everyone knew that.

"Oh yeah, we got along well, he was always cheerful and willing to help out with the horses. Even if the horses didn't like him much."

"Why didn't they like him?" Tenten asked, glancing at the horses.

"Well, I think it was the crows that flocked around him," the trader said, humming thoughtfully. "They didn't like the smell of them. At least it wasn't ravens. Ravens are signs of death. Crows are too, but to a lesser degree."

The trader heaved a big sigh. "Seven crows were following him the last time I saw him. He didn't appear when I was ready to head out two days later. Two days after I left, I heard of the Uchiha massacre. I worry what that meant for him."

"Why is the number of ravens important?" Tenten asked curiously.

"There's an old counting rhyme for ravens." The man sighed again. "One for sorrow, two for mirth. Three for a wedding, four for a birth. Five for silver, six for gold, and seven for a secret never to be told. Eight for a kiss, nine for a wish, and ten for a bird you must not miss."

A secret never to be told? Weird. Either it was old wives tales, which was somewhat likely, or something was up here.

The trader gave her a wane smile. "It worried me too. Years have gone by, I haven't seen head or feather of his flock since. If you want to see if you can find them, check the Naka river in Konoha. I hear there are many crows there. His flock will always react well to any sort of treat, they're hard to miss if you have food. Always willing to come right up to you and do tricks for it." He sighed once more, patting the flank of one of the lead horses gently. "Come on girl, let's get a move on."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imma add that thing from last chapter as a subplot now! So she'll keep a look out for things pertaining to that now. New arc, whoo!

Tenten eyed the abandoned camp. "Are you completely sure there's no one there any longer?"

Gai nodded firmly. "There wouldn't be. The samurai of the Land of Iron are very firm in their views on bandits. There may have been at some point, but I can assure you that they are here no longer."

Tenten nodded. It looked like everything had been left behind, which was a bit odd. Mostly undamaged too, which was even stranger. Huh, what was that bow laying on the ground? "I'm gonna check something out, I'll be right back," she said distractedly to Gai, already heading for the broken bow.

It looked like a long bow, something she was familiar with, although didn't use often due to the specific muscles it needed being something that would come with practice, which she unfortunately, didn't really have time for. It looked to be made of both wood and metal, intricately carved with seals.

She only recognized a couple, the ones for durability mostly, and didn't see any alarm or trap seals, so she picked it up.

Nothing happened, so she sealed it away and hurried to rejoin the main group.

"What was it?" Gai asked curiously.

"A broken bow," she replied, humming. "It had seals all over it, the only ones I recognized were for durability. I'll probably ask about it either while we're there, or when we get back to Konoha."

"Good idea," Gai praised easily. "My advice is to do both! It will get you more opinions! After the fall of Uzushio, the Land of Iron became one of the top weapons makers in the Elemental nations!" **(Do I know this? No. It's canon in this story now tho. Fight me.)**

Tenten nodded in agreement. It made sense. Although what was with mentioning Uzushio? "Wasn't Uzushio known for their seals?"

Gai nodded. "Correct! However, they also had high concentrations of chakra sensitive metal! They really only sold weapons to Konoha, and most chakra sensitive blades you'll find in Konoha were made in Uzushio!"

"Like the White Fang's blade?" Tenten asked. She'd always been curious about how that had been made. And where.

"Yes! That is one of the best examples of something made there! It's rumored the Seven Swords were also made in Uzushio, although got stolen by Kiri! No one is quite sure whether that's true or not though."

It made a bit of sense, Tenten had always wondered how Kiri had managed to make the swords, and why they hadn't made any others. "Did they always use the metal for weapons?" She remembered Genma's note about musical genjutsu, and the clan that used it.

"No! They also made the best instruments this side of anywhere!" Gai grinned impossibly wider. "The sound from their instruments was supposedly the best of any place. Unfortunately, most Uzushio instruments were lost in the fall, so it is very rare to find anything like it now days. They also used it in jewelry sometimes!"

"Jewelry?" Genma hadn't mentioned that from what she could remember.

"Yes!" Gai nodded enthusiastically. "My Rival Kakashi has a pendant from his father made by Uzushio jewelers. I believe it allows him to talk to wolves! He doesn't wear it often, as there is almost nothing like it anymore."

"I wonder if it can be found any more," Tenten mused. She knew Uzushio had been mostly ransacked when it fell, almost anything of any value taken away and sold.

"It's possible," Gai agreed, slightly quieter. "However it is very nearly indistinguishable from normal jewelry unless one knows how to find and activate it."

Tenten hummed distractedly. It kind of made sense? She didn't think the jewelry would have a noticeable activation thing, that was just asking for trouble. "What sort of things would the jewelry do? Other than Kakashi's talking to wolves one." Sue her, she was curious! And Gai seemed to know about it, so it wouldn't hurt to use some of the remaining trip to Iron to get some questions answered.

"Well, they'd do all sorts of things!" Gai replied. "It depended on the maker and the jewelry. Sometimes you'd get a seal based thing that would turn you into a seal. Or it'd let you talk to seals. Or it'd actually let you manipulate water with a bit more ease. It was all a toss up."

Tenten tilted her head. "Why were the uses so different between one piece of jewelry?"

"Uzumaki are distractible. They like random things doing random things. Sometimes, there'll be identical pieces of jewelry that'll do different things. Kakashi has accidentally been turned into a wolf when he activated the necklace he thought was his fathers, but was actually a different piece. Kushina had swapped them out when he wasn't looking."

Tenten snorted. "Sounds like fun."

"I've only used two pieces in my life," Gai said somewhat wistfully. "One turned me into a turtle! I still have it of course, although can't really use it unless I'm in water. Turtles are not land animals, unlike the tortoises I summon."

Tenten nodded. "What was the other?"

Gai laughed. "A breathing underwater one! It was an adventure! Breathing underwater jewelry often means you can't really breathe above water, simply because there is more oxygen in water!"

"Huh," Tenten muttered. She hadn't really thought of it like that, but it was cool.

"I am not in possession of that one, it belonged to Kushina! She merely allowed me to try it out for a single challenge with Kakashi!"

Tenten wondered if she wanted to know. The city they were going to wasn't visible yet, so she decided that it was going to pass the time. "What challenge?"

"Who could adapt to one piece of Uzushio jewelry the quickest! Kushina provided ones that would prove troublesome to us! I won that one!"

Tenten hummed. "What did Kakashi get?"

"A fox pendant! He had the ears and tail from it for a week before it wore off!"

Tenten choked on nothing as she tried to imagine that. She couldn't quite manage it. She bet it had been hilarious though. "I can imagine how annoying that must have been."

"He kept sitting on it," Gai admitted, laughing. "He got supremely annoyed at chairs with backs as well! He sat almost exclusively on the ground or on a stool the entire time. He vowed never to wear a piece of jewelry he didn't know what it did ever again."

Tenten snorted. It sounded hilarious. Oh, was that the city!? She hoped it was, she was tired of walking for endless miles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is indeed the city! This chapter was fun to do. Especially that last bit about the jewelry. Join my discord server, there are tiny isopods! The code is pnQAF39.

**Author's Note:**

> Gotta love Gai. He's so very sweet. Timeline stuff, this is in the year before the Rookie 9 graduate. This will follow canon somewhat closely in that they aren't really going to appear until the Chuunin exams, which is the biggest turning point here. Until then, enjoy Team Gai fun. Honestly, Gai is such a hoot to write, it's hilarious.   
> I have a discord server, so come join the 15 or so of us there with the code pnQAF39


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